Becky's Books –

Ah,  the hype!   So I was really hot to read it right at first because I was so curious.  But then,  after thinking a bit,  I thought no,  I’ve had enough of the clown.   Then I changed and thought no,  you almost have a responsibility to read it just to support freedom of the press – (#45 tried to stop publication!).  Finally,  I thought maybe there’s something more in the book than what we see on the news,  maybe there’s background and/or depth.   The book does seem generally on the level – any gross errors would be reported by someone –  so far there are some details which are suspicious but nothing major (as far as I know).

*******
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
By Michael Wolff
2017 / 336 pages
Read by Holter Graham – 11h 56m 
Rating:  8+ /  nonfiction-politics 
*******

Mostly I found it to be funny.  Oh yes,  there is plenty of information about the personalities and power struggles  And if you think much about it,  the “behind- the-scenes” stuff,  the reality (?),  can be downright scary.

From the horror of finding himself actually elected and getting the *job* of POTUS through the bumbling attempts at putting together an organization,  the scandals and the looming Russia probe all the way to the Charlottesville protests and Bannon’s exit in August of 2017 this book kind of covers the highlights in order.   It also has an epilogue hitting the Roy Moore campaign, Carl Kaepernick’s knee and Rex Tillerson’s “moron” comment in October as well as Kelly’s term as chief of staff and more recent developments – last changes were probably around early December – prior to the Moore defeat.  The beat just kept rolling as the book went to press.

Theres’s a fair amount of speculation,  but much of the narrative is based on some observation, over 200  interviews, and so on.  Some people talked about other people and some about themselves,  some are on record,  some not – some hidden.  Wolff explains that approach but I will say a LOT of the information seems to have come from Bannon who was at the center, is a talkative guy,  and has an axe to grind and is now apologizing  all over the news.  lol

I follow the news pretty closely,  so much of it was a review of what’s gone on for the last 18 months or so  (and there has been so much!)  but it’s presented concisely and pretty completely although it’s not every Tweet or any of Melania’s troubles – a LOT has been edited out.   But this way I feel I’ve gotten a more complete overview of the whole time and the important issues besetting the WH and POTUS.   Also,  there were a few new things  (or stuff I didn’t remember) scattered around.

There are bits of insight into the policy-type thinking of different members of the show – er whole entourage but mostly it was just “do it different”  on issues ranging from health care to foreign policy.    It seems much of it was a game of how to get to talk to Trump  and then wait for him to make up his own mind – if it wasn’t already.    (The man does not read anything.  He watches three TV sets and talks to people.)

There’s quite a lot of  stuff about Trump’s personal habits, idiosyncrasies, rages and,  of course,  tweets.   But also covered are the personalities,  Lewandowski,  Ayles,  Mercer, Bannon,  Priebus, Conway,  Ivanka, Kushner, Flynn,  Ryan, Hope Hicks,, Sally Yates,  Comey,  Joe & Mika,  Don Jr,  McMaster,  Scaramucci,  etc (and a LOT more).   But there’s precious little  about Melania and Saturday Night Live is not mentioned.    The staff were all mostly concerned with how to keep Trump happy –  and with their own feuds which grew quite hostile.

The basic take-away for me is that it says straight out that Trump and company really didn’t expect to win and weren’t terribly happy with that outcome.   I think I read this as a little factoid long ago,  but there wasn’t much about it.   Imo,  that explains the Russian thing –  there was probably no “collusion”  *to win the election.*    Trump likely wanted the bad stuff about Hillary to push for impeachment later (and to “lock her up”)  while keeping his name in the news and increase the value of  his brand.   That said,  there is certainly evidence of “obstruction of justice,”  but I think it’s because Trump doesn’t want Mueller following the money or the family.  And yes,  Russia probably did interfere with our election in terms of putting a lot of fake news out there about Clinton-  I don’t know if Putin won or not.   –  Putin loathes Clinton.

So then Donald became president and it was all about “OMG! Now what?”   And the rest of the book shows the chaos and blunders and posturing for the favors of an ignorant,  incompetent, probably criminal semi-nut case in charge of our country.    That’s what our situation seemed to me prior to reading the book and seems to me still.  I just know more specifically how bad it all is.  It’s scary bad.

Is it worth it?  Imo, yes but basically because I enjoyed it –  not because I learned anything really new,  but I feel I have a deeper understanding of a shallow administration – how bad it is –  or was –  maybe it’s better now.  I doubt it.  Not if the same guy is at the helm.

The book’s reader,  Holter Graham,  is quite good but kind of emphasizes the idiotic aspects –  It’s always quite obvious that neither the author nor the narrator is a fan. .

I’ve been reading Dave Robicheaux novels since some time in the early 1990s.  I could only get them piece-meal as they came available at my local small indie.   When I got online I was able to purchase the ones I was missing and kept going.  When I got my Kindle I kept going.   And when I started listening to Audio recordings I kept right on going and now I’m on book #21.   (And I’ve read Burke’s other novels, too – fwiw.)

*******
Robicheaux
by James Lee Burke
2017 /  465 pages
read by Will Patton
rating:   A+++ /  literary crime
*******

It seems like Burke writes with the Biblical authority of Faulkner,  avenging the sins of the fathers and the sons and the brothers and a few sisters, too.   He gets metaphorical, allegorical, and topical.  He goes back  into history to find the seeds of evil and then follows the roots and stems and branches to where it flourishes in vivid technicolor today seeming to thrive  in back-alley bar-rooms with thugs and dope pushers and so-called high class, old-money families with their own rapists and and money launderers.  Every socio-economic level has its own miscreants.

This is life at it’s grittiest in a lush paradise with language to match each  – the contrast is amazing.  And Burke’s way of working with the eternal quest for redemption is phenomenal – the stuff of the classic theme of good vs evil.

Meanwhile,  the setting for this brutality is as lush with greenery and history and old families of genteel backgrounds juxtaposed with abject poverty as any I’ve ever read.  When Burke describes the Spanish moss at sunset or the slow moving bayou in south of New Orleans it’s visual.  This is a place which still both honors and loathes their Confederate dead,  and where manners and morals are intertwined to the point of being indistinguishable.

Burke spares nothing when the fighting starts – it’s bloody.    The sex is never graphic (or very rarely) but people’s heads are blown right off with plenty of malice and only rarely any forethought.  People talk and think about killing each other regularly.

In addition to the literary devices,  there are a LOT of literary references and allusions in Robicheaux – from Kipling to Shakespeare and even Burke’s  own book,   “White Doves at Mourning.”   They’re pretty fun but really I think they give some pointers toward the themes as well as providing relief from the intensity of the horrible brutality.

The literary part never quite takes over the crime story,  but it’s close.   The structure stays linear and he uses good tension building techniques.  There’s a seriously gritty feel to Burke’s novels.   But even with the strong language which uses original and appropriate metaphors, and smart and realistically rough dialogue, the ugliest plot lines shine through in all their complexity.     A mighty quest for redemption is often at the heart of his best novels with some symbolism and allegory thrown in for good measure.   And still the crime is remains the focus.

Through the series Dave Robicheaux has gone through several law enforcement jobs in the New Iberia Parish area as well as three wives, and he has one child who has grown from an adopted 8-year old to an adult woman.  His best friend through all of this has Dave’s good friend Clete Purcell,  a private detective (of sorts) and general ne’er do well, a violent drunkard with a heart of gold.  Dave himself is a recovering alcoholic who had bouts of depression and rage.  Some of the characters or their relatives move from one novel to another –

Robicheaux seems like it’s more violent and more philosophical than the priors –  it might not be so,  but …

Resolution –  I’m going to keep some sale books around for reading when I really do NOT know what to read next.  That little decision was made on the basis of Some Danger Involved which I got on sale and which proved to be a fine book  – the start of a new series for me but which I may put off reading all the way through for awhile.

*******
Some Danger Involved
by Will Thomas
2003 / 304 pages
read by  Antony Ferguson – 9h 28m
rating:  B+  /  historical detective 
(Barker & Llewelyn Series, Book 1)
*******

In Victorian London,  Private Detective Cyrus Barker needs an assistant.  (The preferred job title is “private enquiry agent.”)   After  interviewing several he chooses Thomas Llewelyn – our first person narrator.

The two of them go to a Chinese restaurant,  (Barker is Scottish and Llewelyn is Welsh)  for lunch –  a mysterious and possibly dangerous type place where Barker shows off his ability to speak Chinese.  Later Barker reveals that he provides for all of Llewelyn’s needs.  The stage is set for this atmospheric Victorian who-done-it.

This is a very capable start to a good series – it’s got all the elements including  likable and intriguing main characters and a strong atmosphere combined with an interesting plot and a few idiosyncratic motifs like books and food.  It’s a form of Sherlock Holmes with his own Doctor Watson.

And the setting is wonderfully well done showing 19th century  (probably around 1840)  London with all its warts – anti-semitism particularly,  in this case, but there are lots of immigrants from lots of places and the attitudes of many Brits has changed from acceptance to annoyance – “They’re taking our jobs,  they’ll marry our women!”   Shakespeare and Dickens are mentioned.

The plot:   After Llewelyn is hired and finds out that the crime of the day is the murder, or actually the crucifixion,  of a youngish Jewish scholar.  The head rabbis hire Barker and the tale proceeds through some who-done-it, some thriller-type events to a great conclusion.

I read this for the 4-MA Reading group (mysteries) discussion.  The story concerns a high school student’s death by peanut –  he’s deliberately poisoned.   I rarely read Young Adult books, but once in a great while one comes along and for one reason or another I enjoy it.   This is definitely YA and I would never have read it on my own,  but I liked it.  I’m not sure it’s all that “good”  but the nicely drawn and likeable characters drew me in like a mom.

*******
One of Us is Lying
by Karen M. McManus
2017/  361 pages
read by a small cast
rating:   A  /  YA crime
******* 

First off,  more than one of them is lying here – clever title though – it fits on several levels.

Cooper,  Nate, Bronwyn, and Addie are seniors at Bayview High School located east of San Diego.  One day during an apparently set-up detention another boy,  Simon,  suddenly dies due to an allergic reaction to peanut oil which was in a cup he used for water in the classroom.

Alternating sections focus on the story of a single 1st person narrator – one of the teens – and their relationship to what happened on September 24 – when Simon drank the peanut oil while in detention with kids who were tricked into having to be there.  The story goes on from there for the following several months.

Adelaide Prentiss is a bright and extraordinarily pretty prom queen type,  a generally good girl who is dating a guy named Jake.  Her mother is involved in serial marriages and Addie might be heading that way herself.  Lots of pressure on her.

Cooper Clay is a baseball hero being scouted by the minor leagues.  He’s officially dating Keelie,  but there are other girls hanging around.  Lots of pressure on him.

Bronwyn Rojas is very well behaved and very smart,  from an upper class home – aiming at  Princeton so she never breaks the rules.  She’s also a very talented musician.  She has younger sister who is,  or has been, extremely ill and this drives Bronwyn to succeed.  Lots of pressure on her.

Nathan McCauley is pathetically poor with problem-parents and at school he is kind of an outcast – partly by his own choice.   He’s on probation for dealing drugs.  He looks like he’ll be the scapegoat.  Lots of pressure on him and no support.

Simon Kelleher seems to have been an angry young man who collected  gossip and rumors about people and built an app to send info to his classmates.  What he says is generally true and kids can have very serious problems because of what he says about them.   He had been a popular kid until the last year or so when his app got the others scared of him.  The big problem is that everyone has secrets and some  of the kids need to stay transparently above-board to get what they want.

The first four kids are definitely suspects in the murder of the fifth and the cops want one of them to break under the pressure and confess.   And then there’s the media –  television,  the internet,  Twitter, etc.

And …    between all the pressures and the resolution of the crime,  a bit of romance pops up and it’s done very,  very sweetly –  normally I would hate that part,  but I don’t at all – not with this book.  I think it’s because the characters are so lovingly drawn.

The structure is interesting –  with each teen getting a 1st person portion of each chapter.  Some sections overlap in terms of time frame so, for instance, we see Nate at Bronwyn’s house from her point of view in one chapter and from his point of view in the next.  McManus does a nice job of smooth tension building using almost no foreshadowing.  but plenty of cliff-hanger chapter endings.  There are also a few juicy and unexpected twists.

This is a totally fabulous book – not for everyone,  I suppose,  but if you’re interested in the life and times,  the ideas (!),  of Michel de Montaigne,  the 16th century father of the essay,  it is pure-d terrific.  Bakewell is obviously a fan and hopes to persuade her readers to join her.   I believe the “philosophy” is as relevant today as ever – it is to me,  anyway.

I must have read a few bits of Montaigne  in my college days, or at least skimmed over his name in some history text,  but I guess I wasn’t impressed because prior to a few months ago I had no real memory of him or his writings.   I’ve read some now and plan on more – maybe a lot more.

Anyway,  I’d  wanted to read How To Live ever since  I read Bakewell’s At the Existentialist Cafe several months ago because, imo,  Sarah Bakewell can write the bark of a tree (or the pixels off a screen – whichever).    So when the book was selected for discussion by the All-Nonficiton Group  I jumped to alertness,  but held myself back from reading it until close to the scheduled date.   (Am I not good, or what?)    

*******
How to Live:  Or a Life of Mantaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
by Sarah Bakewell
2017 / 318 pages
read by Davina Porter
rating:  9.75  –  biography/history/philosophy/
(read and listened) 
*******

Ah….   readable philosophy.   Yes,  the book has a slow start,  but by the third chapter I was fully immersed and hunting up some of the man’s essays.

The Question is –  “How to Live” –  and Bakewell’s book is divided into twenty chapters each containing an aspect and some development of Montaigne’s answer.

1 – Don’t Worry About Death
2 – Pay Attention
3. Be Born
4 Read a lot,  forget most of what you read,  be slow-witted
5.  Survive Love and Loss
6. Use Little Tricks
7.  Question Everything
8. Keep a Private Room Behind the Shop
9. Be Convivial,  live with others
10.  Wake from sleep of habit
11.  Live temporarily
12.  Guard your humanity
13.  Do something no one has done before
14.  See the world
15.  Do a good job,  but not too good a job
16.  Philosophize only by accident
17.  Reflect on everything,  regret nothing
18.  Give up control
19.  Be ordinary and imperfect
20.  Let life be its own answer

That’s it –  “How to live.”   –

And this biography consists of a lot of philosophy and history because the times were those of the Reformation struggles (Wars of Religion in France), the age of Enlightenment and the aftermath.   But Montaigne’s writings lived on – and on – and on,  morphing into the ideas of whatever age they found themselves in.   As his life in the age of Reformation and French Civil Wars ended, his ideas came up against those of Pascal (very religious) and Descartes (very rational).  And Bakewell compares him to the Epicurians, the  Stoics and the Skeptics after which she goes on to examine the views held by Rousseau and the Romanticists re Montaigne as well as George Sand,  Leonard and Virginia Woolf.

There is by necessity a certain amount of chronological biography to it –  Montaigne’s upbringing was unusual,  his close friendship with a yount man who died very young and suddenly,  his occupations in law and politics,  marriage,  are examined.

It’s not a terribly well organized book but it works,  because the structure allows for working out of the context which is vital to Montaigne’s essays – and then the subjects morph back into a mirror of the reader.

Looking for something a bit different after reading The Seven Functions of Language,  I happened on an Audible 2-for-1 sale and got 4 books.   One of them was this book,  “Dead Mountain,” from the history section –  a true mystery – not necessarily crime.    And then I got the Kindle version, too, because it was quite inexpensive and has pictures.   Eichar also narrates the book although it’s not usually a good idea for authors to narrate their own books.  In this case it works better than some I’ve heard although it’s a rather dry reading.   He’s a documentary producer by trade so this adventure and book about it was kind of right up his alley.

*******
Dead Mountain: The True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident  
by Donnie Eichar –
2013 – 
read by Donnie Eichar  6h 23m 
rating:  7.5  /  nonfiction adventure 
(both read and listened) 
*******

I’ve read Jon Krakour’s books,  Into Thin Air and  Into the Wild  – (as well as others) and hoped for something similar.   Eichar is no Krakhour but he’s a good writer.

It all happened in the winter of 1959.  Nine students from a Russian university decided to take a hike into the Ural mountains and be back in time for the new semester Yekaterinburg’s university.   All members of the group came back on stretchers having been found in various places and half dressed with no shoes on any of them.  The question was, and still is really,   what the heck happened,  and even now,  over half a century later,  it’s not quite known why or how they died.

This is the mystery which fascinated Eichar and his buddy Jason Thompson so much they had to travel to Russia to try to figure it out.  Eichar went to the scene twice to interview people and study the documents and on the second trip he actually traveled to the scene in mid-winter.   The FSB (modern KGB) is still very curious about foreigners in their country and although Stalin had been dead for several years and Khrushchev, better but certainly not great,  was in power and the prison camps were certainly in full swing –  one fairly near where the hikers went.

The narrative alternates between the story of the hikers and the search for them at the time,  with the story of Eichar’s investigation – it’s smoothly done.

http://ermakvagus.com/Europe/Russia/Cholat-%20Syachil/Kholat%20Syakhl.htm

How to describe this book? –  Omg –  Well –  it’s a crime thriller of sorts with a lot of travel, a few chases and quite a lot of innovative sex plus a few bloody deaths.  But the characters and themes are completely pinned to the boards of philosophy,  linguistics and literary theory.   (How’s that?)  Also there’s a huge comic element – something along the lines of a cross between Woody Allen and the Three Stooges.

On my wish list since it was released,  it got nudged up by a post from a fellow member of one of my reading groups,  but oh my …   I was prepared for the literary aspects,  some of the philosophy and even for the crime stuff,  but not for the chase Three Stooges aspect or the fantastical –  the book is hilarious,

*******
The Seventh Function of Language
by Laurent Binet
2017 / 360 pages
read by Bronson Pinchot – 12h 26m
rating:   9.2  /  very literary crime-alt-history    
*******

Basically,  the book is about the death of Roland Barthes and the idea that he may have been murdered (he died suddenly but was not murdered)    for a special document which was in his possession (lol),  but was then lost or stolen  (right).

This takes place in 1980 Paris just prior to the election of Francois Mitterrand  (a prominent socialist) .    Giscard d’Estaing (anti-communist president at the time) hires one Detective Bayard to investigate and also hires Simon as a sort of academic “translator” to help with the semiotics (etc) inherent in the discussions with the witnesses,  folks interested in the document,  and so on.

Simon is a kind of Sherlock Holmes reading the “signs” and explaining certain elements of linguistic/literary theory but he really doesn’t know everything (no one does).   Much of the novel is based on historical people and either true of fictional events,  but much of it is alternative history using fictional characters.

I am positive that quite a lot of the narrative as it relates to the themes went straight over my head,  but I did manage to catch enough of it to enjoy the time spent.

So the politicos want to know –   why was Barthes murdered?   Where is this mysterious document which has been rumored to be the motive?  And how can they get ahold of it for their own purposes?

The document outlines a possible “7the function of language”  as hypothesized by a hypothetical reading of and elaboration on Roman Jakobson’s  Six Functions of Language.   The ability to use the 7th function effectively would seem to mean control of the world. (Yes.)

So our intrepid detectives travel from the streets and universities of Paris  (where everything starts)  to Bologne (for Umberto Eco) and Ithaca (for Searle) and finally to Venice (for the final debates).   En route there are various and sundry crimes committed  which don’t exactly line up with reality,  but what the heck.

In the novel an international debate society called The Logos Club, is important and noted for its unusual penalty for losing –  (gives the phrase “digital capital” a whole new meaning).

So not only do we have a “Who-done-it” in search of a crime,  we have a novel in search of theory –  and there are many suspects- one of whom feels like he is in a novel.  (LOL!)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/12/the-7th-function-of-language-by-laurent-binet-review

While looking around at Timothy Hallinan’s books  – due to Fields Where They Lay –   I see that one of my favorite authors has another Poke Rafferty book out (and it’s been as of November 7!)     Cool.   Great crime novelist – one of the best on the market today imo.    I’ve followed his Poke Rafferty novels from #1.

The overarching plot of the series is that the fictional protagonist,  Poke Rafferty,  a travel writer who lives in Bangkok,  has adopted a young and very bright street urchin named Miaow.  He also lives with his fiancé,  Rose, an ex-bar dancer whom he married in about book 5.   In Fool’s River Rose is pregnant and Miao is about 14 years old.

*******
Fool’s River
by Timothy Hallinan
2017 / 368 pages
read by Victor Bovine
rating:  A  /  crime – (graphic violence)
*******

Miaow  attends a good English school where she has a  close friend named Edward Dell.  Now Edward’s father,  Buddy,   is missing.  The man’s main  occupation is womanizing which is what tore the family apart and the scary part is that other men have recently been found dead in the city’s central river.   Not only are they dead with legs encased in plaster,  their credit cards and savings accounts have all been completely used up in recent prior weeks.

Edward has already looked around a bit for his father and he’s scared because Buddy’s accounts are already being drained.  Yes.   Edward lives with Buddy,   but he doesn’t like him very much and understandably,  he really doesn’t want to see him hurt.  Miaow wants to help so Poke gets involved.

Another hugely important character in the book is a young transgender woman  named  which adds that theme and it’s very sweetly done and at the same time it’s gritty ugly.

Meanwhile,  Miaow is playing Eliza in their school version of Pygmalion and the very pregnant Rose goes missing.

This book seems to be a bit grittier than Hallinan’s priors – there is serious and very graphic violence against men, women, and children.

I’d seen this book available for the last few years and it kind of looked interesting – I’ve enjoyed several of  Balducci’s other novels,  Besides,  it was on sale.  –

Too bad – it’s about 1/2 stupid and 1/2 okay – fortunately it gets better as it goes along.  The premise is that Tom Langdon is a fictional single, world-weary writer, 30-something in age,  has to take a train across the US at Christmas time.  He’s going to try writing about his travels and he meets several interesting characters.  The book we get is part travelogue,  part train advocacy,  part romance and part country philosophy. with a bit of a mystery thrown in.  For the most part,  it didn’t work for me very well although as I kept reading it did get a bit better.

*******
The Christmas Train
by David Baldacci
2003 / 304 pages
read by Tim Matheson – 7h 4m
rating 5 –  seasonal fiction 
*******

I suppose a theme here is that sometimes we get second chances – other times we have to jump at the first when it’s the only thing that makes sense.  Also,  people are generally very good and sometimes seeming miracles do happen – Santa brings them.

A passenger train becomes snowbound somewhere in England.  It’s loaded with passengers  on their way to Christmas or somewhere.   This is an old classic mystery tale in the tradition of Agatha Christie et al.   It was first published in 1937, toward the end of the  Golden Age of detective novels, and true to form,   it’s a puzzler more than a character study,  more than a thriller,  more than a theme-based piece of lit.  And J. Jefferson Farjean was more popular than most of the authors in this genre – Agatha Christie being the best of course.

*******
Mystery in White
by J. Jefferson Farjean
1937 –  256 pages
read by Patience Tominson – 6h 59 m
rating:  A /  classic English detective 
*******

Okay – so there’s a small group of passengers in one of the coaches.  It becomes apparent the train is not leaving anytime since.   After the “old man”  sees a figure running by,  he grabs his luggage and follows,  then a few of the others decide to  see if they can walk the rails to the next station.

On the blizzard walk are David and Lydia Carrington who are brother and sister, Robert Thomson, a clerk,  and Jessie Noyes, a young starlet. Jessie falls down and has to be carried by David.  RObert is anxious about everything and Lydia is a real sport.

Eventually the group gets to a house but it’s very odd because although no one is around,  the kettle is boiling and fires are lit.   Oh well – they settle in.   Then the old man who left first, Edward Maltby,   Joins them.

Hopkins arrives a bit later with the news there was a murder on the train.  And Smith shows up denying he was even on the train although a ticket falls out of his pocket.

The action goes round and round with Maltby acting as amateur sleuth to find out who is in the house or where they have gone – then find out about murders and find out who Smith is.

It’s a pretty good yarn although it brushes a wee it with the occult.

I’d never read anything by Anne Perry before this, and this may certainly not be my last by her.   The reason I chose it was simply because I was looking for Christmas mysteries and the summary and sample on Audible sounded quite promising.   The only disappointment was that it was so short.   (But I gather Perry writes a Christmas novella every year,  so … )

*******
A Christmas Return
by Anne Perry
2017 / 192 pages
read by Jenny Sterlin –  4h 11m
rating:   A+  / seasonal crime
*******

One day a week or so before Christmas Mariah Ellison received in the mail what she believed to be a Christmas pudding from someone.  But it’s not a Christmas pudding,  it’s a disguised cannonball.   With only a vague memory and the postal stamp to go by,  she figures out what it’s about.

Twenty years prior a teenage girl was badly hurt and murdered in a community not too far from where Mariah lives now.   A local doctor was arrested and tried for the crime,  but he was found not guilty.   The first lawyer who worked on the case quit and was then found dead – with a bloody cannonball next to him.  The local understanding was that the lawyer’s wife,  Mariah’s good friend, had murdered her husband,  but she was never charged.

Along with the cannonball,  Mariah also received a letter from the widow’s grandson saying they needed help.  Christmas or no,  Mariah promptly left to help her friend.

The current trouble started because the man who was found not guilty has returned to prove his actual innocence as he wants to marry a woman with money.    For Mariah and her friend’s family,  this opens the whole can of worms again.

The book is nicely written,  the characters are well developed and the plot has  a couple good twists.  The narrator does a fine job.   There’s also has a very timely theme developed regarding women’s friendships and shame and coming forward.

From the publisher “Decked with intrigue and trimmed with Yuletide spirit, A Christmas Return is a holiday treat wrapped in the glorious storytelling talents of the reigning master of Victorian mystery.” (Publisher’s comment)

Someone recommended this and I had it on my wish list so,  being tired of Christmas stories for now and having a few days between group reads,  I picked up on it.   It’s cute but it has some meaning.   But the subtitle is “A Fable of Resistance”  so …

*******
Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance 
by Bill McKibbon
2017 / 240 pages
read by Danny Campbell
rating:  7  (but it’s fun) / general fiction
*******

Bill McKibbon is a fairly well known and award winning activist and author working mostly on global warming issues but involved in other things as well.   He also developed the website https://350.org/about/

Radio Free Vermont is his first novel and it’s been acclaimed by his followers including Bernie Sanders.

Vern Barclay is 72 years old and he’s not a happy camper.  He lives in a Vermont he almost doesn’t recognize although he’s lived there for 68 years.   It’s just not the same  what with its Walmarts, Starbucks,  Colorado beer and other big business enterprises.  He’s been a radio announcer all his life and even that’s changed – bought out by a corporation out of Oklahoma – so there’s no more local talk-show commentary intermingled with music and an occasional store opening live event.    That’s all been changed.   Actually,  he can barely even get online although he has a computer savvy supporter who helps.

Instead he decides to run pod-casts comes to the point of being a fugitive (possibly a terrorist) because of a little incident involving toilets at the local Walmart opening.  It wasn’t pretty but Vern really  doesn’t care – he has something to say and he will say it.

“underground, underpowered, and underfoot”

The tone is humorous on the surface,  but underneath there is a serious message about the changes Vermont and the world are looking at as well as the forces working against opposition.   McKibbon,  as can be expected,  uses Barclay as his mouthpiece.

(Guns are allowed but a standing military isn’t.)

https://www.npr.org/2017/11/08/561217701/radio-free-vermont-offers-a-modest-proposal-for-resistance

https://350.org/about/

Professor Peter Shandy of Balaclava Agricultural College decorated his campus house in an outrageous manner for the annual Christmas Illumination fundraiser and then he left town.   Unfortunately,  he was forced to return early and thus discovered the dead body of assistant librarian, Jemimah Aimes,  behind a couch in his living room.  It looks like the opinionated Jemimah  was trying to “fix” the gaudy decorations and had an accident,  but there was apparently more to it than that.   Shandy sees the problem right away – there’s a missing marble.

*******
Rest You Merry
by Charlotte MacLeod
2012/ 182 pages
read by John McLain
rating –  B  (adequate for a Christmas read) / mystery
*******

This is a rather cute little campus oriented who-done-it and fun for what it is.   MacLeod develops some  decent characters and uses humorous dialogue.  Can’t give it much of rating but I wasn’t hugely disappointed, either.

I read this last Christmas but this Christmas a year chose it to discuss and I started thinking about it and didn’t remember enough.   Why should I buy another seasonal book when I’ve got this one around?   So …

And although I did know the ending,  Hallinan is one of those rare crime writers whose books can stand up to a second reading –  he’s not all about plot.  The language and the ideas are there –  not quite enough to be literary,  but certainly not fluff.

This is the 6th book (and latest) in the Junior Bender series and I still haven’t gotten around to reading the first 5 volumes.  I’ll promise myself again.

*******
Fields Where They Lay 
by Tim Hallinan 
2016 /  384 pages
read by Victor Bodine
rating:  A+  /  crime 
*******

Junior Bender is a thief by trade – he robs houses of valuable things and sells them  – sometimes for lots of money.   But he has a side job – he helps out others who deal on the wrong side of the law because they sometimes have problems which need resolution.

This time he’s working for the Russian owner of  a degraded shopping mall who needs someone to figure out why the shoplifting at his establishment has skyrocketed.  Then there’s a murder and some chase scenes and another body or two.   There’s the threat to Junior’s teenage daughter.

The setting is original –  a large shopping mall which has definitely seen better days.

There are a couple of excellent twists involved in the plot and a couple of interesting characters – like Shlomo the Santa who has his own background with a good story of its own.

Of course with the Russian mob involved there is a thriller aspect – chase scenes and guns drawn and a few bodies.

There are some really sentimental parts but the book never gets schmaltzy.  Junior is definitely a good guy at heart.

This book came up rather suddenly in a group which reads good stuff and recently published books are fine.   I’m a fan of John Bancroft (although not Benjamin Black so much) and Henry James as well.   What Bancroft has done is to continue the story of Isabel Archer,  James’  heroine of A Portrait of a Lady in a sequel.

I read the James book several years ago and I chose not to reread it prior to reading Mrs Osmond.   I wanted Banville’s Isabel to stand on her own – I didn’t want to compare the two.   Also I didn’t want to compare the styles although I couldn’t imagine Banville would capture the same Victorian era James wrote of or writing like “the Master” did.  Banville is quite good, but he’s not Henry James.

*******
Mrs Osmond
by John Bancroft
2017 / 384 pages
read by Amy Finegan – 11h 42m
rating:  9
(read and listened)
*******

Isabel Archer,  in A Portrait of a Lady,  is a young woman who was suddenly orphaned and not long afterwards taken to Europe by her aunt.  There she met several people and eventually inherited a large mount of money from a relative which made her prey to the old penniless European schemers James loved to write about.  Although there were more suitable men courting her,  she married a jerk and settled with him in Italy.   Isabel found the marriage to be a kind of trap – she was trapped in a truly loveless marriage with many ugly secrets and for which her money had been the only draw.  There is a lot of scheming and further complications in the James book –  it ends rather ambiguously and to me quite sadly,  but it’s a good book.

Banville takes it from there – after a few years Mrs Osmond has to go to Paris for the funeral of the relative.  She knows her husband’s secrets and these are revealed as Mrs Osborn progresses – with Banville adding a couple of twists.    But Isabel is no longer the innocent woman of only a few years prior,  and is now seriously disenchanted with the lies.   She sees old friends and makes a new one – she changes her plans.

The results –  first, if I hadn’t remembered the relevant details important to Isabel Archer as James wrote the book,  they were in Banville’s sequel and that nudged me into remembering quite a lot.   I did so enjoy A Portrait of a Lady  – I may have read it twice.  However,  I’m not sure one could follow the intricacies of the backstory without having read A Portrait of a Lady at all.  –

Second –  yes,  Banville was apparently up to the task of creating the era of Isabel Archer and writing with a fair approximation of the fine hand of James,  although it’s never quite up to his fine standards.    (It seemed to me that Banville had more interior views than Banville.)    And Banville gives us a good enough picture of  the 1870s in Europe for historical fiction.   Unfortunately,  I know that Banville is not on the scene first hand as James was –  for some reason that made a huge difference to me.

Overall,  I really enjoyed the book – although it’s not on my best of year list. Banville did a really good job with a fascinating idea which must have been very difficult to execute.

The BookGroup List chose this one to discuss for the last half of December.  It looked interesting so I got it.  I’d never heard of Solstead but I familiar with Ibsen.  It’s a very short book.    I suppose “intense”  is the word for it.  Dag Solstad has won the Norwegian National Critics Award three times –  the only author to do so.

*******
Shyness and Dignity
by Dag Solstad
2006 –  176 pages
translated by Sverre Lyngstad (Norwegian)
rating:  9.25
*******

It’s a wonderful book,  but rather difficult, imo, so it’s a Good thing it’s short.   I read somewhere that Solstead wrote it in honor of Ibsen’s 100th anniversary of something.

A young American scientist thinks he has discovered a way to actually DO quantum computing which is hundreds of times faster than regular stuff.   Very handy to the spy-biz.    But he really doesn’t want to sell the idea and machine or compromise them to anyone or any entity.  He’s a firm believer in open-technology.    Too bad,  the CIA finds out about it and they become QED’s only customer while Schultz continues to develop it.

Meanwhile,   China is not ignorant of developments and has been wanting to get ahold of quantum computing,  too.   It “changes everything”  in the world of digital anything from spying to medicine to travel and education –  everything.

*******
The Quantum Spy
by David Ignatius
2017 / 336 pages
read by Edoardo Ballerini  – 10h 55
rating –  A+++ / techno-spy
*******

Not too far into the game,  one Chinese spy dies revealing his secret diaries when he does.  This gives the CIA a lot of information but …

One result is that a rather new CIA agent,  and our “number one”  character,  Harris Chang,  of Chinese descent and an ex-army officer,  visits the hotel room of Chinese computer scientist Dr. Ma Yubo at a conference in Singapore, hoping to recruit him.   It doesn’t work but the CIA isn’t convinced that Chang has not been compromised.  And Chang gets to thinking while other people are doing pretty much what they want to –  spies,  counter-spies,  double agents,  moles,  recruits,  and a few who only want to cover their ass.   Women are vital – powerful – devious.  And the globe-trotting characters visit exotic places at the drop of a hat giving us settings like  Singapore,  Richmond Virginia,  Bejing,  Mexico,  Vancouver,  and Amsterdam.

Even with talk of quantum computing this is,  for the most part, a conventional spy novel as there really isn’t much to say about the science.  Building a big one is still in the developmental stages but more than just speculative – there is a machine which has huge potential.  What we have at the moment is pretty much in the league of a quantum calculator.

So the basics of the book are those of a very good spy novel – nicely drawn major characters,  well done dialogue,   great twists to the plot –   and it almost might even be a bit literary because there are themes outside of  the usual spy biz which are explored –  themes of racism and patriotism and loyalty.   (I won’t go so far as to actually say it’s literary,  though – it’s just that the ideas put it at a higher level than most genre spy novels which I enjoy once in a great while.)

Wired Interview with David Ignatius